


See Ya Around

by TheonSugden



Category: Coronation Street
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mention of cancer, Mentions of incest, death mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-07-10 12:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6984505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheonSugden/pseuds/TheonSugden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before Carla leaves Weatherfield, she says goodbye to the factory...and Liam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	See Ya Around

**Author's Note:**

> Carla and Liam were one of my favorite soap relationships, a relationship long forgotten by Corrie. I had to give them a goodbye.

Carla made her way through the empty factory, wedding-manicured fingernails running against the backs of chairs like a singer on her last farewell concert. 

“Oh come on Carla, you know you’re gonna miss this place!” 

“Stop sayin’ that or she’ll try and take it from us.”

Carla laughed at Aidan’s joke, knowing she’d never want to be in this place again. It had always brought her pain, death, heartache. She’d only really gotten two good things out of it - Hayley and Liam. And it hurt so much for her to think about them, most days she just didn’t even let herself.

“Tony Gordon,” she said, flatly, as she sat down on the edge of his - and her - old desk.

Kate and Aidan looked at each other nervously at the mention of her second husband, at the monster who’d taken away her Liam, nearly killed her, along with Hayley and Roy and too many others. A monster she knew she’d probably helped create.  

“Don’t worry - not gonna start smashin’ the walls with a stiletto,” she said, with a faded smile. “Least we made a nice wedding photo, eh?”

Kate stepped forward.

“C’mon Carla, maybe we should get outta here.”

Carla shook her head. 

“I think YOU should get out of here. Both of ya. I just wanna say goodbye.”

As they shared another look, she smiled, reassuringly.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I’m a big girl.” 

Reluctantly, they left, Aidan squeezing her shoulder before he did so.

Carla sighed. This place was still just a dull old factory to them, out of date to the modern world, ready for any and all updates and improvements - or, when they’d been a round long enough, a quick sale for quick cash. 

Or when they’d been around even longer, a tomb. 

She thought of Janice and Joanne and all the other long gone factory girls. She thought of the tears and fears Sally had confided in her when she’d had breast cancer. She thought of the laughs and fights with Michelle and Maria. 

She thought of Paul, her first husband, a man she’d loved more than she’d let him know, but had never really loved in the ways that mattered.

She thought of Kasia, the worker from Poland, and of her death off the clock, the death she and Liam had covered up. Sometimes she wondered if they’d been cursed that day. But no. She was sure Nick would say she was the curse. And hell, maybe she was. She was too tired to think about it anymore. 

She thought of Nick, another man she’d loved, but never enough. And Peter. Oh, she’d loved Peter. She’d loved him so much it still made her ache inside. That hadn’t really mattered in the end - still ended in tears and lies, court case after court case, and a baby she could never hold in her arms. 

As she walked the floor again, remembering the names of every worker, she was sure - 

“Lighten up, willya...Cousin Carla?” 

She frowned in disbelief as she turned to the teasing voice she still knew so well, even after all these years.

* * *

 

“We’re not - well, we are, but...”

She burst out laughing at the stupidity of it all. Through some paternity twist, she and Liam were now cousins. She was still surprised no one at the factory had made a joke of it. Maybe they’d forgotten Liam the way it seemed like so many people had - like she never could, even when she’d tried. 

Liam grinned at her, just like yesterday.

“Always thought you were weak and soft, with your big family...but without Ade and Kate and Johnny...I don’t think I’d still be standin’.” 

Not without his arms around her. She still missed that. She missed everything about him. 

Even his clothes.

“Are ya really still wearin’ that striped top and those ratty old jeans?”

He shrugged.

“S’called signature style.”

She raised her eyebrows. 

“More like not wanting to do a wash.” 

They’d joked like this day after day, sometimes cutting, sometimes light and fun. She’d fallen in love with him those days. Really fallen - not just the teenage hormones of their earlier years. 

Her eyes filled with tears again.

“I’m so sorry about so many things, Li -”

Suddenly she felt his voice against her ear, soft, their own little secret.

“Shh...”

She swallowed the lump in her throat.

“This ain’t how we’re gonna say goodbye, is it?” he whispered, stubble grazing her bare neck.

She wanted to kiss him again, just one last time. 

She stepped back, shaking her head. 

“I can’t say goodbye to you. Can’t do it.”

Liam took a deep bow, but under the jokes, Carla could see the tears in his own gorgeous brown eyes. 

“Well...I am well and truly honored.” 

She forced a laugh. One he saw right through as he sat down in one of the empty chairs, putting his arms behind his head, his trainers on the tabletop - like the old days.

“You screwed up. Hey, I’m no stranger to that. Don’t mean ya gotta ride the rail outta town.”

She stared at him for a few minutes, letting his soft eyes study her.

“Don’t have any fight left in me, Liam. I’m just so tired. So many people are glad to see me go. Can’t say I blame ‘em. If you knew -”

Liam tut-tutted.

“Since when does the ice queen give a damn what anybody thinks of ‘er?”

That had always been a facade. Liam had known it even before she had. 

He stood up again, wearing another soft grin.

“Back up. Chin held high. Neck straight.”

Carla laughed a real laugh that time. 

“Oh that’s right. _Soz_. It’s chin up, back straight, head held high.” 

She would try. Oh how she’d try. 

“If you were here,” she let herself say out loud, “It’d be easier.”

Liam scoffed.

“Nah. We’d kill each other. What we always did best.”

She nodded.

“Yeah but - I felt alive then, even when I was dyin’ inside. I just - I don’t anymore. Don’t...don’t think I ever will again.”

When she closed her eyes, she felt his arms around her waist, like that long, rainy night in her flat, their escape from the world.

“You will. I know you.” 

She almost didn’t want to believe him. She almost wanted to just give up.

“Soft lass. Look at ya. Silly girl.” 

She rolled her eyes. 

“I’m not a girl...watch it.”

He laughed into her neck, his chin resting on her shoulder.

“See? That’s my Carla.” 

She couldn’t stop the tears then, because she was his Carla. And she always would be.

“I love you, Carla Connor,” he said, where no one else in the world could ever hear. 

She smiled through her tears. 

“And I love you.”

She turned, staring at his gorgeous mouth again.

“I love you, Liam Connor.” 

She could still feel the kiss - burned in her bones. Soft and loving. Everything of her and him. 

It was just a sad old factory, but it was him. It was her and him. And that made it so much.

“Bye, Carla.” 

She bit her lip, never accepting the words. 

He sighed. 

“Hey, don’t blame it on me. I’m not the one takin’ a dive to delightful Devon, now am I?”

Another wicked grin...tinged with his tears.

“How ‘bout we say - see ya around?”

She smiled. She liked that. 

“Right then,” he said, false cheeriness, puffing up his chest, mock deep voice. And such brokenness underneath, where only she could see. “See ya ‘round, Cousin Carla.” 

The factory doors opened, sunlight streaming in, blinding Carla. And Liam - suddenly he was gone. Or maybe he’d been gone the whole time. She couldn’t think about it.

“Ready to go, luv?” Johnny asked her, reluctance heavy in his voice. 

She nodded, hesitantly.

“Right then.”

She turned around, taking one last look at the factory. 

Her eyes were so unfocused from the blinding sun, but she was sure she saw him standing against a sewing machine, arms folded, trainers crossed, sad, knowing smile on his handsome face. 

She blew him a kiss.

“See ya around.” 


End file.
